The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
This was a surprisingly good book. I read it on the suggestion of a friend, and wound up liking it more that I expected to.
AP Mobile: Fourth-graders who flunk reading have faces marked
A story from AP Mobile:
Fourth-graders who flunk reading have faces marked
DECLO, Idaho (AP) - A fourth-grade teacher in southern Idaho is being criticized after having her students use permanent markers to draw on the faces of classmates who failed to meet reading goals. Some parents and administrators say the punishments given to nine students in Summer Larsen's class were inappropriate and left the children feeling shamed. Cindy Hurst said recently her 10-year-old son...
Walter De la Mare's Poem: The Truants
Author: Walter De la Mare [More Titles by De la Mare]
Ere my heart beats too coldly and faintly
To remember sad things, yet be gay,
I would sing a brief song of the world's little children
Magic hath stolen away.
The primroses scattered by April,
The stars of the wide Milky Way,
Cannot outnumber the hosts of the children
Magic hath stolen away.
The buttercup green of the meadows,
The snow of the blossoming may,
Lovelier are not than the legions of children
Magic hath stolen away.
The waves tossing surf in the moonbeam,
The albatross lone on the spray,
Alone know the tears wept in vain for the children
Magic hath stolen away.
In vain: for at hush of the evening,
When the stars twinkle into the grey,
Seems to echo the far-away calling of children
Magic hath stolen away.
DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #70: A Motorcycle With No One On It - The Rumpus.net
This is great advise:
DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #70: A Motorcycle With No One On It - The Rumpus.net:
'via Blog this'
Dear Sugar,
I’m crushing in middle age. That’s pretty much it. I’m middle aged, married, and crushing on a friend. And it’s full blown, just like in high school, sweaty palms, distracted, giddy, the whole she-bang. So far it has gone no farther than flirting and I really, really know better. My question isn’t what should I do (I’m pretty clear I should behave), but what should I do with all this delightful but distressing energy?
Crushed
Dear Crushed,
Steer clear of the object of your crush and use that “delightful but distressing energy” to reinvest in what matters most to you—your marriage, it seems. Do something extra sweet for your spouse this week. Have sex tonight and make it hella hot and good. Go for a long walk or a lingering dinner together and lovingly discuss how you’re going to keep your love as well as your romance strong. You’re clear you don’t want to act on your crush, so trust that clarity and be grateful that you have it, sweet pea. My inbox is jammed with emails from people who are not so clear. They’re tortured by indecision and guilt and lust. They love X but want to fuck Z. It is the plight of almost every middle aged monogamous married person at one time or another. We all love X but want to fuck Z.
Z is so gleaming, so crystalline, so unlikely to bitch at you for neglecting to take out the recycling. Nobody has to haggle with Z. Z doesn’t wear a watch. Z is like a motorcycle with no one on it. Beautiful. Going nowhere.
Yours,
Sugar
Sugar
DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #70: A Motorcycle With No One On It - The Rumpus.net:
'via Blog this'
Flipboard for iPad
via flipboard.com
Social media benefits from a fortuitous combination of software, services, and gadgets.
Flipboard Flud Google Reader RSS
Quote: John Lithgow: Time sneaks up on... - The Quotations Page
Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug. John Lithgow
Time I am, and I have come to engage all men...
- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad-gita)
Thomas Beek has forwarded a page to you from Common Craft
Thomas Beek thought you would like to see this page from the Common Craft web site.
Message from Sender:
Augmented Reality - coming soon to a conscious experience near you.
Augmented Reality - Explained by Common Craft
by leelefever
by leelefever
Quotes of the Day
I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.
- Peter De Vries
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
- Evan Esar
For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news.
- Gloria Borger
Image via Wikipedia
- Peter De Vries
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
- Evan Esar
For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news.
- Gloria Borger
Image via WikipediaThe Singularity is Near
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Singularity Summit | Summit 2010 > Reading List
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Lawmaker Loopholes?
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Lawmaker Loopholes?
Lawmaker Loopholes?
Q: Is Congress exempt from "many" laws including one against sexual harassment?
A: No. The latest e-mail rant against Congress — proposing a "28th Amendment" to the Constitution — is full of false and outdated claims.
FULL QUESTION
A chain e-mail (copy below) claims members of Congress can retire after one term with their same pay and, while serving, pay no Social Security and exempt themselves from some laws, e.g., sexual harassment and health care legislation. A 28th Amendment to the Constitution is proposed barring Congress from enacting laws applying to its members and not equally to the "citizens of the United States."
Are the facts right?
Subject: An idea whose time has come
For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that Congressmembers could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn’t pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered…in all of its’ forms.
⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full text ⬏
FULL ANSWER
That’s a lot of very old baloney packed into a few words.
It never has been true that members of Congress could retire with full pay after one term. That’s a false allegation that has been circulating for at least a decade. As we reported back in 2007, lawmakers can qualify for very good pensions, but nowhere near that good. A lawmaker might qualify for a pension of 80 percent of final salary, and only after many years of service.
An even older Internet myth is the claim that members of Congress don’t pay into Social Security. That was true once — but not for the past quarter-century. They have paid Social Security taxes since 1984, as we reported in a separate article, also in 2007.
The claim that members of Congress would be somehow "exempt" from the now-stalled health care legislation is a more recent absurdity. It’s a twisted claim based on misrepresentations of the House and Senate bills, neither of which exempts lawmakers. We explained how that false notion got started on the Internet rumor mill in an article we posted on Jan. 20.
Finally, the claim that Congress is exempt from "many" of the laws it has passed is 15 years out of date. In the 1980s there were news stories prodding members of Congress for putting themselves "[a]bove their own laws," as a 1988 Time magazine story put it. But following the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, which put Republicans in control of both House and Senate, Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act (PL 104-1), which applies a dozen civil rights, labor and workplace safety regulations to the legislative branch. Here’s a list compiled by the independent, nonpartisan Office of Compliance, which was set up to enforce the laws in Congress:
Laws Applied to the Legislative Branch by the CAA
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute
Veterans’ employment and reemployment rights at Chapter 43 of Title 38 of the U.S. Code
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1989
In addition, the CAA was amended in 1998 to include certain provisions of the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998.
According to the Office of Compliance — and contrary to the claim in this e-mail — sexual harassment is specifically covered by Section 201 of the CAA.
The e-mail complains that Congress shouldn’t be an "elite that is above the law." But that’s not the way the authors of the Constitution saw it. They worried that presidents might try to bully House or Senate members by threatening to arrest them on trumped-up charges. So to preserve the separation of executive and legislative powers, the founders gave elected lawmakers a certain degree of immunity.
U.S. Constitution
Article I, Section 6They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.
There very well may be good reasons for ratifying an amendment to the Constitution as proposed in this message. We take no position on that. But as a matter of fact, just about all the claims this message makes in support of the idea are false.
-Brooks Jackson
Sources
Jackson, Brooks. "Does a United States senator receive his full pay upon retiring?" FactCheck.org. 26 Dec 2007.
Jackson, Brooks. "Do members of Congress pay Social Security taxes?" FactCheck.org. 17 Dec 2007.
Robertson, Lori. "Congress Exempt from Health Bill?" FactCheck.org. 20 Jan 2010.
Cramer, Jerome. "Above Their Own Laws." Time. 23 May 1988.
Congressional Accountability Act of 1995. (PL 104-1) 2 U.S.C 1301 et seq., as amended.
"Office of Compliance Media Fact Sheet." Office of Compliance undated, accessed 29 Jan 2010.
Constitution of the United States, Article 1, Section 6.
Depression Linked with Belly Fat | Psych Central News
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
CHICAGO, April 29 (UPI) -- Depression is linked to the accumulation of belly fat, the kind of fat packed between internal organs at the waistline, U.S. researchers said.
Belly fat, also known as visceral fat, has long been known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
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